Month: November 2012

Mechanicsburg, PA – Sunbury Press has released author Margaret Meacham’s murder-mystery novel “The Survival of Sarah Landing” about an artist/author from Maryland’s eastern shore who experiences the deaths of her husband and a student close to her.

About the book:
Once upon a time, Sarah Landing, forty-year-old mother of three, was a successful picture book author/artist. But that was before the death of her husband three years earlier. Now she is blocked, and running out of money faster than her growth- spurting fourteen-year-old son can empty the fridge.

Sarah teaches “The Art of the Picture Book” at the local arts center, and when she receives a beautiful manuscript from someone enrolled in her class, she is captivated by the work and eager to help the artist publish. Soon after they meet, the artist disappears, and is later found dead, and Sarah is drawn into the mystery.

While Sarah attempts to understand what happened to Louisa Myner, someone else is attempting to find out how much Sarah knows. Unbeknownst to Sarah and her kids, someone is watching them, and he doesn’t like what he sees.

The story is set on the Eastern Shore of Maryland which is beautiful and isolated and where fishing and boating are part of the culture.

About the author:
Margaret Meacham grew up in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and spent her childhood summers visiting her grandmother on the Chesapeake Bay, where many of her books including “Secret of Heron Creek” and “Oyster Moon” take place. In 1975 she received her BA degree in English Literature from Trinity College, and she received an MLS degree from University of Maryland in 1977.

Meacham teaches writing and children’s literature at Goucher College and online through Gotham Writer’s Workshop in New York City. She has three grown children, Pete, Jen and Katy, and currently lives in Brooklandville, Maryland with her husband John and their two dogs Dodger and Sam.

Lancaster, PA — Thaddeus Stevens, the abolitionist played by Tommy Lee Jones in the Steven Spielberg movie “Lincoln”, is buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania at Shreiner’s Cemetery also known as Concord Cemetery at the corner of North Mulberry and West Chestnut Streets in the city.

Stevens (1792-1868) was a key figure in convincing Abraham Lincoln to free the slaves and helped push through the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution to abolish slavery.

Details about the life of Thaddeus Stevens can be found in the new book by Joe Farrell and Joe Farley entitled “Keystone Tombstones Volume Two” recently released by Sunbury Press, Inc. of Mechanicsburg, PA.

Farrell and Farley’s books cover famous dead people found in Pennsylvania, including many interesting stories about them — many not widely known. The pair have also located the cemetery locations of these notables. Following is a list of famous Civil War era people found in the volumes:

“Keystone Tombstones Volume One”:

James Buchanan “Pennsylvania’s Only President”
John Burns “The Hero of Gettysburg”
Simon Cameron “Pennsylvania’s Political Kingmaker”
John White Geary “An American Success Story Few Have Heard”
Lincoln Colored Cemetery “Gone But Not Forgotten”
George Meade “The Old Snapping Turtle”
General John Fulton Reynolds “A True American Hero”
Ginnie Wade “A Tragic Love Story”

Mechanicsburg, PA – Sunbury Press has released author Margaret Meacham’s young adult novel “The Ghosts of Laurelford” set in a creepy mansion in the hills of western Pennsylvania 100 years ago.

About the book:
The Ghosts of Laurelford takes place in the Laurel Mountains in western Pennsylvania in 1919. The main character, fifteen-year-old Lacey Gillespie, is visiting Laurelford, The Taymeyer mansion with her grandfather.

Lacey is not happy to be at Laurelford. She is deeply involved in woman’s suffrage work at home in Pittsburgh, and wants to continue this work which she sees as greatly important. Her grandfather, a private investigator, has been hired by a member of the Taymeyer family to investigate a medium named Mademoiselle Matilde Farret, who will be performing séances at Laurelford, and he insists that Lacey accompany him.

As the visit unfolds, Lacey learns that there is more to Mademoiselle Matilde than she had at first believed. A ghostly legend, a family tragedy, and séances with unexpected results add to the suspense, and when the mystery is finally unraveled, Lacey understands that helping individuals can be as important as working for a cause, and that there are many kinds of mysteries in the world, some of which can’t be understood or explained by reason and logic.

About the author:
Margaret Meacham grew up in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and spent her childhood summers visiting her grandmother on the Chesapeake Bay, where many of her books including “Secret of Heron Creek” and “Oyster Moon” take place. In 1975 she received her BA degree in English Literature from Trinity College, and she received an MLS degree from University of Maryland in 1977.
Meacham teaches writing and children’s literature at Goucher College and online through Gotham Writer’s Workshop in New York City. She has three grown children, Pete, Jen and Katy, and currently lives in Brooklandville, Maryland with her husband John and their two dogs Dodger and Sam.

Margaret Meacham has published several novels for children and young adults with Holiday House, Scholastic Inc. and Schiffer Books, and teaches “Writing for Children and Young Adults” at Gotham Writers’ Workshop.

Mechanicsburg, PA – Sunbury Press has released author Susan Dahlgren Daigneault’s post World War 2 biography of her famous father who was known as “Maine’s Sergeant York.” Dahlgren was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman in recognition of his heroics during the war. His daughter relates the price paid by the family during the years after.

About the book:
Because American troops are in far off places in this world, fighting for causes that sometimes cost them their lives, and because our veterans from World War II are a dying breed, it is entirely fitting that we save the stories of our veterans so that their experiences and their voices will never be forgotten and so that current generations might learn about the horrors of war and how the impact of battle never really goes away.One such story is about a Maine man who spent World War II as a member of the Texan 36th Infantry Division. In the Shadow of a Mountain tells the life story of one of Maine’s Medal of Honor recipients, Edward C. Dahlgren. It is a timely manuscript in that it details Dahlgren’s struggles with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, a condition affecting many of our military veterans returning from war zones today. It is a book that will help readers to know about the devastation of war and how we must always provide care and comfort for our returning veterans.

When Lieutenant Edward C. Dahlgren stepped off the train that brought him home from a combat experience that should have killed him but didn’t, he wore a chest full of medals, carried a heart full of sorrow for his men who never came home, and was faced with the daunting task of finding a way to live a life worthy of his survival. In November 1945 the guns of World War II were silenced but the battles continued for Lieutenant Dahlgren and many other soldiers who were haunted by the gruesome events of their war. He had lost 40 pounds from his slight frame and suffered from jaundice. He stammered when he tried to talk and his hands shook so badly that he couldn’t hold a cup of coffee without spilling most of it on the counter or in his lap. He suffered night terrors in which German soldiers came back from the dead and pointed their rifles at him. For decades, he suffered in silence until another war erupted and a name was given to his troubles: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Once described as “Maine’s very own Sergeant York”, a reference to the movie about World War I Medal of Honor recipient Alvin York, Edward Dahlgren received his own Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman at a White House ceremony in the East Room in August of 1945. Following the ceremony, Dahlgren returned home to Maine’s northern most county to live a life of quiet dignity and amass a legacy of public service. Because of his service to his country in the time of war and his subsequent service to his community and his state in a time of peace, the flags of our country flew at half staff on the day of his funeral and when his passing was announced, The Bangor Daily News honored him with front page coverage.

The book, In the Shadow of a Mountain, is the story of this unassuming hero who grew up without a father in the Swedish colony of Northern Maine, who went to war shortly after his mother’s untimely death, who returned home so poor that he wore his army uniform pants until they wore out, who raised a family of four on a paycheck that sometimes didn’t stretch quite far enough, who instilled a passion for fairness, honesty, hard work, and a love for learning in his children, who gave generously of his time to help establish a veteran’s clinic and nursing home in Northern Maine, and who all the while suffered with PTSD. In the end, the way he lived his life was most definitely worthy of his having survived the horrors of his war. And, the way he lived his life provides lessons for all of us on how to live well even while struggling to do so.

Reviews:
“Sue Daigneault honors her father, the war hero, her father the anguished soldier, her father the man. She writes with passion and unflinching honesty. This book about an embattled World War Two Congressional Medal of Honor recipient could be read by every family of a returning soldier today with a knowing nod. Ed Dahlgren’s life in rural Maine deserves to be remembered.
– Mel Allen, Editor,Yankee Magazine

We all owe Ed Dahlgren a huge debt. At the point of decision, in the midst of ferocious fighting that defined the start of the demise of the Nazis, he demonstrated that rare heroism that changes the course of battle. This book gives us a chance to see what people can do when they know that everything depends on them. Outstanding reading.
— Colonel Jack Jacobs, Medal of Honor recipient, author of “If Not Now, When?”

Edward C. Dahlgren, a Medal of Honor recipient, was a quiet, competent man who stayed off of the skyline, except in firefights on the battlefield. While the majority of the Medal of Honor Society members meet annually, I never met Ed until a deer hunting trip in Maine. He would not attend big events or tell his story; that was not his personality. Our armed forces personnel know their leaders and their true warriors, but no one knows an individual better than a daughter. Sue has done an outstanding job in writing her father’s story, the life of a true American warrior. This is a “must read” for all Americans who appreciate our freedom and love our great country.
— Colonel Wesley Lee Fox USMC (Ret), Medal of Honor recipient, author of “Marine Rifleman: Forty-three Years in the Corps”, “Courage and Fear”, and “Six Essential Elements of Leadership”.

The first four are our newly elected members, and we know continuing member Beverly Richardson will leverage her considerable background in organizational effectiveness and her experience for the last year on the current board to help bring them up to speed. When the new board is officially seated in January, their first order of business will be to elect from among themselves the four Corporate Officers — president, vice president, treasurer and secretary — with the fifth person serving as Director At Large.

MBPA is a professional trade community of independent publishers located in the MidAtlantic area. We welcome all independent and self-publishers, along with authors considering becoming independent publishers, in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Washington, DC.

We are a regional affiliate of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the largest non-profit trade association representing independent publishers.

From Linnea:
Please join my current cooking class to establish a new sense of awareness of the importance of whole food, its preparation and consumption. We will focus on your personal health and develop common sense wellness routines to reinstate your physical body to balance and youthful vitality. Take your place at the table – you are all invited! We will do this together.

Consider these important issues:
• If you care about the “home” you provide for your indomitable Spirit,
• If you care about the inconvenience of being ill, feeling awful but needing to keep going,
• If you care about living a long healthy life full of vitality and freshness,
• If you want to participate personally in ‘cleaning out’ and ‘greening up’ your body,
• If you care about investing in your Self, which in turn more effectively serves all those you love,
• If you care about the increase of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity,
• If you care about driving down the mounting health care costs in these beleaguered times,
• If you care about cleaning up your personal environment. . . this is part of your eating consciousness.

You should seriously consider the concepts and recipes in this cook book which you will use and refer to for the rest of your life!!

I am passionate about Food, Ayurveda, and Svaroopa® Yoga. These are sister sciences that are meant to support each other. The Ayurvedic principles of food preparation and eating are the “common sense” way of nurturing and nourishing your body, so basic and so simple. These ancient teachings come to us directly from the Mother Divine, providing the cosmic memory of the Universe to create your body’s own inner healing and dynamic well being using “food as medicine.”